The Culture War

The Culture War

Hadi Kobaysi

The Enemy's Strategy

In the Culture War, the enemy has lured us to the conflict so that we will use the same instruments or else we will be outside the arena of confrontation. It is important to point out that these instruments are foul, artificial, commercial, hypocritical, individualistic, competitive, and are governed by the enemy's standards.

In the Culture War, Western hegemony has been solidified to the extent that the enemy is not willing to give up a single inch of our land, a portion of our economy, or a drop of our blood. The enemy considers us as a part of his abundant possessions and he is ready to wage wars that would last for a hundred years in order not to lose his great feudal estate.

Teaching Methodology

The infrastructure of the Culture War is the educational system and everything else is based upon it.

In the Culture War, no clamor is made by the defender; there is only the voice of the teacher who dictates Western ideology and submission to tyrannical plunderers.

In the Culture War, we must "find the origin, foundation, and basis of Humanities in the Holy Quran. This is one of the important sections in Quranic Studies. We must pay heed to Quranic ideas and intricate points in different domains, and we must search for the principles of Humanities in the Holy Quran. This is an essential and very important feat. If this is accomplished, then intellectuals, researchers, and opinion makers in different branches of Humanities will be able to construct lofty monuments from this base and foundation. Of course, in this case, they can benefit from the achievements of other Westerners and those who have precedence in Humanities but the basis must be Quranic".
-The Supreme Leader, Sayyed Ali Khamenei in a meeting with female students of Quranic Disciplines, 20 October, 2009.

In the Culture War, the effect of secular knowledge surpasses the scholarly and objective aspect to encompass the individual and moral one. The reason is because this knowledge attempts to determine man's true nature and to plan the different aspects of his life in a way similar to how we benefit from the methodologies of Humanities when contemplating life issues. Due to the fact that the human mind concentrates upon life issues for most of the time, this contributes to transforming these methodologies into the viewpoint we maintain toward life- this viewpoint which faith and conduct depend on.

In the Culture War, the more that we accept submission to the tyrannical despot- who considers himself as the sole possessor of true knowledge- the more will we drift away from monotheism.

In the Culture War, we have not yet determined how to take from our enemy what is of benefit to us and we have limited ourselves to the scientific, intellectual, and cultural assistance which imperialistic embassies specify.

In the Culture War, the educational system which maintains a material viewpoint to the universe is responsible for spiritual, emotional, and familial disintegration. This educational system adopts a viewpoint which only pays heed to the concrete aspect and expects us to perceive only what is material and physical.

In the Culture War, Western "scholarly" texts take us to an atmosphere where there is no spirit, emotions, family, or society. There are only instruments for domination, control, and the transformation of humans to a means for exploitation in various domains.

In the Culture War, when a Muslim teacher is informed that Islam has a say in Humanities, he denounces this entire notion. He considers this as a trespass upon his social rank as an instructor who has fulfilled all of the conditions of learning because he adopts the Western educational system which is restricted to the standards of foreign embassies.

In the Culture War, when you ask an educated person about his opinion concerning a certain issue, he boasts that a certain "Western" figure says so and so…
Are you mute? Or have you had no time to contemplate and reach your own idea?

In the Culture War, we have become subjugated to Western intellectual standards which we abide by because we consider them to be the highest exemplar for conduct, thought, and life. Being instructed in these standards in educational institutions brings us joy, and we conform to imperialistic knowledge with maximum enthusiasm!

In the Culture War, the first defeat was on the level of our outlook to the universe. We are being targeted by a staggering amount of texts which are provided by the current educational system and they are in charge of forming an outlook to the universe which the West imposes upon us in all Humanities majors and details. The first defeat occurred in educational institutions.

In the Culture War, all treacherous cadres and all unsuccessful ones are a result of the educational system which has been formulated to produce either imitation or pretense.

In the Culture War, our universities are devoid of a defiant motive for intellectual resistance. What exists is a motive for acquiring a level in memorization and receptiveness to directive instruction. The maximum aim is to comprehend what the West desires and how it thinks because we forsook our existence and entity a long time ago…!

In the Culture War, research methodology teaches us how to organize information and not how to produce solutions because the productive mind forms a threat to the haughty influence of the West.

In the Culture War, the basis is to consider that you have to memorize what Westerners say, and the current educational system is responsible for accomplishing this.

In the Culture War, Imam Khomeini's experience represents a knowledge source which links between exalted knowledge and worldly knowledge and upon which we can depend on in erudition and theory. However, we have limited ourselves to the political aspect and neglected the wealth of knowledge…

In the Culture War, Imam Khomeini's experience consists of many matters which we have not yet tried to discover. It consists of numerous aspects and the Imam only clarified a part of them in his texts and speeches while the other parts are scattered in his words and inside book pages. The issue we are discussing in this humble attempt is the compilation and contemplation of some of those dispersed ideas in order to produce an explanation for one of the aspects of that brilliant experience: the knowledge aspect.

In the Culture War, the definition of an "educated person" has become distorted to the individual who has dissented from genuine culture and has lost all direction like a self-operating and self-destructive virus.

In the Culture War, we should pay heed to the intellectual fountain which we drink from when we want to learn about humans as individuals and as a society. Human dogmas which are based upon secular and material ideology have considered the object of study- man – in an incomplete manner. Thus, they have fallen into omission and contradiction which arises from disorderly diversity. They have deviated from the correct path because they rely upon knowledge which is inadequate and ambiguous concerning the origin and nature of human existence.

In the Culture War, books are a prized possession, reading is a form of training, and parents are the teachers. As long as parents don’t sense that raising their children to read well is necessary just like providing proper nutrition, then our defenses will remain vulnerable and deficient.

To the religious university instructor who is affiliated with the Resistance but adopts educational curriculums which provide his students with a sense of cultural inferiority and subjugation to the West: If you don’t carry a weapon in the military battle then don’t be a bullet shot from the enemy’s rifle in the Culture War, at the very least in respect to the blood of martyrs.

In the Culture War, there is a central imperialistic arena which concerns intellect and knowledge. The instructor who raises anti-imperialist slogans presents a complete set of subject matter about colonial subjugation and injects the minds of our youth with destructive concepts. He is firmly convinced of the rightfulness of his slogans but is heedless that he is a central figure in the invasion movement!

In the Culture War, the secular approach which is adopted in the Humanities majors in our universities has become dissociated from spirituality through four aspects:
-A cultural gap: This approach is concerned with a domain which does not employ cultural spiritual conceptualization.
-A doctrinal gap: It relies upon a material and incomplete viewpoint toward the universe.
-A spiritual gap: It affects the soul and isolates it from its entity through obscuring it and canceling its function.
- A practical gap: It sorts practical guidelines which isolate the individual and society from spirituality.

Social Education

In the Culture War, upon careful consideration and examination we will discover the amount of our genuine cultural elements which have been eliminated and erased from the morality of our youth and nation.
In the Culture War, identities have been confiscated and substitute, insignificant, and shallow identities have been forged to serve Western advantage. After that, the West immerses us in various conflicts so that we will remain dependent on everything.
In the Culture War, the first defensive line is to know that knowledge- prior to being a means to gain a job or a social rank- is a field of struggle and confrontation against the Western plunderer.
In the Culture War, being concerned for the community is a central factor in identity, awareness, and confrontation. Solely being concerned with individual needs is a fatal blow to nations.
Unfortunately In the Culture War, the utmost value is for everything new and not everything which is beneficial.

In the Culture War, the holy month of Ramadan has been transformed into a month of TV series. Our utmost concern has become how to avoid hunger, thirst, and exhaustion as if we were fasting compulsively and with no knowledge of the spiritual aims of fasting. The reason is because all our concern is limited to the material aspect and our mind has been trained and confined to a material framework which exploits every chance to flee from the difficulties of worship.

In the Culture War, the value of outer appearances has become established and thus we have become poor in both wealth and intellect.

In the Culture War, we have lost the first building stone of the firm confrontational structure. Our ideas have become individualistic, our egocentrism dominates every behavior, and the rivalry between us makes us heedless of confronting the enemy’s forces.

The most costly defeat In the Culture War is transforming the month of Ramadan from a chance to recover our entities to a period for immersing in worldly desires.

Military War

In the Culture War, our role models are the martyrs who sacrificed their souls and did not give in to fear, exhaustion, or difficulty. They were martyred standing firm and defiant and did not abandon their stance and resistance.

In the Culture War, we must understand and make use of our military victory against the West and its representatives: the association of Zionists and extremists. We should realize that we are also present and that we must stand in the face of ideological invasion, in respect to the blood of our martyrs.

In the Culture War, we surrendered all the front-lines to the enemy even before the war commenced. The military front will eventually drift us toward sacrifice and struggle, but the West looks upon our intellectual and practical dissension with great joy.

In the Culture War, the martyrs have sacrificed their lives for intellectual and spiritual freedom. Time is the blood of this battle and effort is its weapon.

In the Culture War, we have started to regain the independence of our usurped lands in order to reach the liberation of minds, hearts, and souls.

In the Culture War, we should not forget our martyrs and the values they defended with their blood.

“We used to import diving suits from Europe with great effort because the Pentagon had confiscated the stocks of diving suits many times and halted them.
In the night prior to operation ‘Wal Fajr 8’ when we were about to dive in the water, I remember that Martyr Shushteri (may Allah have mercy on his soul) spoke to us in a jesting yet serious tone. He said: ‘My brothers, try hard so that a bullet will not hit your diving suits and pierce them. We have suffered a lot to gain these suits.’
We said: ‘How can a bullet hit us yet not perforate the diving suit?’
He answered: ‘Let it hit your heads and faces for example’.
This was our previous state. We used to confront the world with empty hands and started from below zero to reach what we have now achieved for all the enemy battleships fear us. We were the only ones who caused them humiliation because they witnessed the great feat we accomplished in a time when we possessed nothing."
-Professor Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi

Media

In the Culture War, the enemy prepares many ambushes for diversion and many attacks to cause deviation.

In the Culture War, the last impregnable fortress is the month of Ramadan, but now the forces of the enemy have crept into it.

In the Culture War, the enemy specifies our food, clothing, priorities, form of entertainment, how to spend time, right and wrong, and values and ethics and we are happy to follow his deceptive and exploitative guidelines.

In the Culture War, we know that we have lost a lot of money and time in consuming products which only benefit the enemy’s economy and which he has compelled us to buy through the way of life he has founded in societies.

In the Culture War, the Western plunderer has transformed nonessentials into necessities through the media so that he will continue to gain profit and so that we will proceed to impoverish ourselves.

In the Culture War, the person who earns the highest scholarly rank is the one who is most submissive to Western concepts and ideologies. Imitators are produced effectively!

In the Culture War, if you are not a fighter in the field of confrontation then at least don’t be a spokesman for the enemy and don’t aim your rifle toward our ideas and the minds of our youth.

In the Culture War, infiltration commences from the mind, ideology, and knowledge. No lifeline is intact from being tread upon by Western ideology.

In the Culture War, the Western plunderer has crept into our souls and has been able to plant the notion of dependence upon him in everything. We have become convinced that it is impossible to gain independence and thus our countries and nations continue to live in an imposed prison in all domains: political, economical, and cultural…

Politics

In the Culture War, Islam has once again become unfamiliar due to the distortion of the followers of the corrupt and deviant Ibn Taymiya. Thus, concepts such as political Islam, Islamization, Islamists, jihad, jihadis…have become political curses.
In the Culture War, the Islamic Republic of Iran has presented an exemplary model of political Islam. It balances between genuineness and the needs of our modern era and maintains diversity while confronting the Western plunderer. This is the reason why the West and its Arab agents have striven to distort this model after they despaired of destroying it.
The Spiritual and Religious Aspect
In the Culture War, we must always remember that it is the spirit which fights.

The Culture War starts with intellectual and mental plundering to reach inactivity and despair in front of the enemy. After that we lose our spiritual and moral freedom and this is the cause of every calamity in our Arabian and Islamic world.

In the Culture War, we have assimilated opportunism and egocentricity in every detail. This is the absolute contrast of our exalted Islamic culture but we are living happily with our spiritual and intellectual gap.

In the Culture War, the unity of minds and hearts is a necessity and a priority. Separation and discord is proof of defeat.
The person who is wounded as a result of the Culture War needs a bandage, medication, and compassionate treatment –not reproach for getting injured!

In the Culture War, we should be confident that the Resistance has illuminated the darkness of the Arabian and Islamic state of affairs. This resistance depends upon a deep-rooted, profound, and exalted culture which holds the answers to intellectual and cultural challenges and is able to enlighten minds and hearts in every domain. However, all this can be achieved under the condition of putting up a struggle and a persistent effort, as in the case of a military war.

In the Culture War, martyrs are the lights of guidance because they have forsaken external appearances and insignificant ornaments.

In the Culture War, there are two movements which are propelled exponentially and they are disbelief and extremism. Disbelief leads a religious person to extremism and excommunicating others, while extremism leads the simple religious individual to disbelief and the West controls these two movements. The intellectual product of this motive is the disintegration of the culture and value system of the Islamic region and the effect on the field of action is to ignite this geographical area forever.

In the time of Israeli occupation, we rose and taught individuals who despaired the lesson of revolution and God granted us victory. Similarly, in the Culture War we are in a war of existence and victory will only be granted by God. However, the revolution must first commence from deep inside us…

In the Culture War, after fulfilling the protection and establishment of our existence we will become engaged in the battle of formulating it.

In the Culture War, the one who will remain alive is he who has gotten rid of all the material and psychological desires of worldly life.

In the Culture War, the West has placed our society between two choices: Either the Islam which is distorted to the extent of brutality, or liberalism which is degraded to complete lewdness. Thus, the only choice is corruption and dissoluteness…either disbelief or extremism.

In the Culture War, we are amazed with physical theories because they provide ready instruments, but we are heedless of the fact that these instruments were formed with complete inattention to man’s true nature because the purpose of their creation is domination and exploitation. They represent an existential and ethical contrast. However, the Islamic view which we think is indirect is based upon both truth and value.

In the Culture War, the integrity of the instruments, pureness of intention, and profound affiliation are essential conditions in the true confrontation. I can’t reflect the immaculateness of an exalted culture with a heart ardently attached to fame or wealth, or a personality which is embarrassed of its affiliation or does not hold on well to its standards of values, ethics, and religious lawfulness.

Strategy of Defense

In the Culture War, we must first admit that we announced our defeat a long time ago and that we need to awaken in order to know which point the enemy's forces have now reached.

In the Culture War, the timing is extremely important. Currently, the sound of rifles is intense but there is no escape from engaging in a decisive war in the true field of confrontation later on.

In the Culture War, we must specify the standards of acceptance and rejection…our standards and our barricades.

In the Culture War, the road is long and the required effort will not quickly lead to the desired results.

In the Culture War, whoever turns his back away from the battle will lose the ability to defend and to remain in existence.

In the Culture War, failure to act and remaining silent are tantamount to admitting defeat and accepting submission to the occupier.

In the Culture War, we live in a world which is not ours but we are struggling and remaining firm in every moment and at every intersection.

In the Culture War, we establish concepts and we don't assimilate them without comprehension.